Belgium - Flanders Region - Environmental Permitting Portal

UNECE Task Force on Access to Information / EIT Case Study

Interactive Information and Web Counter for Public Consultation and Decisions (Including Appeals) on Ongoing Environmental Permits

Description

Interactive web counter to consult all submitted request for environmental permits. The website provides

A geographical overview of submitted requests and for and decisions of environmental permits, using geographical location (GIS)
The possibility for digital public inquiries of the submitted requests during the procedure
The possibility to submit a digital appeal procedure concerning the decision of an environmental permit

2. Type: Governmental
3. Scope: Sub-regional, local
4. Working language(s): Dutch
5. Target users: general public, NGO’s
6. Starting year: 2018
7. Budget and funding source: 2,2 million euro annually (for the global project of which the public consultation web counter is a small part)
8. Contact:

Sven Geens

Project leader ‘Omgevingsloket’

Flemish Authority, Department of Environment and spatial Development

Koning Albert II-laan 20 1000 Brussels Belgium

Phone number: +32 1666 60 47

II. Implementation

9. Policy, legal and institutional context: Flanders Decree on environmental permits
10. Partner organizations involved: All concerned governmental organizations on regional, provincial and local level
11. Stakeholders involved, their expected benefits: Online and efficient public participation and consultation concerning environmental permit procedures
12. User needs and methods of their assessment: Internet
13. Technology choice: Interactive website with geographical consultation (GIS)

III. Evaluation

14. Results: 24/7 consultancy possibility for the public of current projects, direct digital input, partial online content (cf. infra)
15. Efficiency gains: Previously only knowledge when passing by the potential project (on site publishing), now everybody has information through the internet with added geographic tools
16. Risks: None (the digital procedure is an extension of the prevision analogue publication that remains available)
17. Challenges encountered (please indicate resolved or not): Implication of author rights, privacy information and intellectual property limits the possibility of online access. Gradually information gets more structured resulting in a larger amount of online available data.
18. Lessons learned: Complexity of data structure implies highly technical tools in order to present the information for the public in a comprehensive format
19. Conditions for successful replication: Use of open source technology
20. Overall assessment of the tool: Positive